comfortably. It will take years for the lava to
cool completely.
"Etna is part of the mental geography of
the people," says Antonio Grasso, a young
Sicilian psychologist. "Nowhere else do peo
ple have dreams of being covered by lava.
They are common here."
"The people say that farmers go to bed at
night with one eye closed and one eye on
Mount Etna," adds journalist Pietro Nico
losi. "However, they know that land born of
a volcano is among the most fertile. They use
lava to build their homes and pave roads. So
even though they must beware, they know
Etna is their friend."
Also, lava seldom kills. It moves too slow
ly. Nevertheless, on the evening of March
17, the lava moved frighteningly fast-two
kilometers in 20 minutes. It just missed the
town. The following day a new vent opened
above the town.
"The fire and lava were so horrible," local
sculptor Gaetano Arrigo tells me, "I prom
ised Saint Joseph, patron of our town, that
if he stopped the lava, I would make a stat
ue of him out of lava for the town. Lava is
very hard to work with, but I had to do
something."
Other townspeople made a procession
carrying the saint's picture in front of the
lava. The next day, on the feast of St. Jo
seph, the lava stopped flowing, and a mir
acle was proclaimed. Arrigo began to sculpt
his thanksgiving, which was recently raised
in the town (following page).
NOWHERE in the Mediterranean does
humanity seem as vulnerable to the
whims of the earth as in the Bay of Na
ples. Mount Vesuvius, which cata
strophically buried Pompeii and nearby
Herculaneum in A.D. 79, dominates its east
ern horizon. (See the preceding article.)
Despite Vesuvius's past, refugees from
overcrowded Naples each year press ever
farther up its broad and fertile flanks, obliv
ious of any danger. For the moment, that
danger seems slight. "Vesuvius is asleep,"
says volcanologist Giuseppe Luongo. Its last
eruption in 1944 ended a cycle. It may be two
hundred years before it wakes up-or ten.
Not all the Bay of Naples is as quiet. Ask
anyone in the town of Pozzuoli.
"Pozzuoli, she is like a ballerina. She is al
ways going up and down," says fisherman
Carmine Carante at the wharf along the
Gulf of Pozzuoli. He points to a loading
dock, which is today nearly 20 meters from
the water's edge. "We used to drag our boats
up there. But about 1970 the earth started to
rise. That happened once before near here
in the 1500s-just before a new volcano
erupted. So the people here were scared."
Recently scientists have realized that Poz
zuoli is near the center of one of the most haz
ardous volcanic areas on earth-the
Phlegraean Fields. A huge explosion there
36,000 years ago left a caldera some 12 kilo
meters across, creating an ancient gulf.
Then 17,000 years ago another explosion
filled in most of the gulf, putting down an
ash layer upon which Naples is built.
The rise of Pozzuoli indicates magma is
accumulating again. An eruption like the
one 17,000 years ago could bury Naples un
der 100 meters of ash.
The same tectonic stresses that create
Neapolitan volcanism also bring earth
quakes. On November 23, 1980, eastern Ita
ly jerked slightly toward Yugoslavia. For
two terrifying minutes the ground was
pulled out from under millions of Italians.
Seventeen southern hill towns were total
ly demolished. Some 5,000 people were
killed and about 400,000 villagers left home
less. Many of those flocked to Naples.
"Heart of men." That is how the poet
713